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Red Plains
Population: 12,380 (100% Humans) Government: Tribal Religions: Celestial Bureaucracy Imports: Armor, Weapon, Wine Exports: Horses, Jewelry Alignment: All Life and Society The people of the Red Plains, the Ma’ren are nomadic people. They roam the sprawling plains, never staying long in one place. In most cases, a family, or group of families live and travel together. These large groups usually stay put during the spring and summer months, and move around during the fall and winter months. Every tribal member owns a horse. Horses and the people of the Red Plains share very close relationships. Horses provide the Ma’reni a means of transportation, defense, industry, and, when times call for it, food. Ma’reni trained horses are more agile and faster than their Shou cousins. They are less hardy, however. Residents typically live in tent cities that can be set-up and removed with minimal effort. As a result, the Ma’reni nomads are a highly mobile society, and can move their camps at a moment’s notice. Major Organizations Ministry of the Shou Empire and the Red Plains Major Geographical Features The Red Plains are massive in size. For their magnitude, however, the steppes are surprisingly sparse. Few shrubs taller than a foot or so in height dot the terrain. Even fewer trees exist. Miles upon miles of mostly low-growing grasses extend across the area. A few natural lakes exist, as well as a greater number of natural ponds. In general, the Red Plains have a wide variety of weather throughout the year. Winters are typically cold, and summers are typically hot. Rainfall varies from region to region, and year to year. At certain times, excess rainfall has been known to create temporary streams and rivers, while at other times, a lack of rainfall has caused drought, and dust storms, due to the winds that sweep across the plains at most times. The Red Plains compose most of the Shou Empire’s Hai Kwo Province. The provincial governor, Tae-Wang Ling, operates out of the Fortress of Kai Deng. Most Ma’reni horsemen do not recognize themselves as living within one of the Shou Empire’s provinces, and instead, consider themselves a separate, autonomous Shou Empire. Important Sites None Regional History Though the Red Plains to not have a very extensive formal history, the region has a long and stories informal history. Before the Shou invasion from Jadespace, like most of the area that comprises the Shou Empire today, the Red Plains were ruled by Ryukan. These Ryukan first domesticated and trained the famed Ma’reni horses that are still can be found on the plains today. When the Shou arrived, the Ryukan who existed on the Red Plains ceased to exist, as they were assimilated into the greater Shou community. Their legacy lived on in the Ma’ren people, the Shou who would come to live on the Red Plains. Like the Ryukan before them, many of whom the Shou intermarried among, the Shou of the Red Plains would adapt to their environment, and form a culture very different from their cousins to the south. The Ma’reni of the Red Plains would generally be loyal to the Shou Empire as the years passed. In 432, they answered the call of Emperor Ju Bei Xang by sending a militia of horsemen to the frontlines in the fight against Cha’lok the Ogre Mage and his army of bandits, ruffians, and fell creatures. Things would change because of a series of events that would occur two centuries later, that would alter the relationship that the Ma’reni of the Red Plains and the rest of the Shou Empire would have. In 626, Emperor Jin-Wen Xang died, and his son, Min-Wen Xang, became the Emperor of the Shou Empire. Emperor Min-Wen, because of years of low-grade poisoning by his uncle and a treacherous advisor to his father in a bid by the two to eliminate Emperor Jin-Wen’s successors, was mentally unstable. He suffered from extreme and sudden mood swings, and supposedly heard voices in his head that were not his own. Because he was mostly mentally competent, though, succession went to him, and not his younger brother, Ying-Wen Xang. Five years into his reign- a reign that had mostly been marked by peace and prosperity- Emperor Min-Wen began making irrational decisions that had dire consequences on his subjects. Hundreds of innocent people were slaughtered across the country as the emperor enforced strict penalties on relatively minor crimes. By 635, mass protests began breaking out across the Shou Empire where people began calling for Emperor Min-Wen to step down, and allow his brother, the Minister of Culture and Education, to rule the empire. Late in 636, in response to these calls, the emperor had his brother placed under house placed under house arrest in his private villa in Sheng Long, in order to prevent him from usurping the throne, even though he had no interest in doing so, and would only take up the mantle of emperor if his older brother stepped down willingly. On the eve of the new year, Ma’reni from the Red Plains, who often considered themselves possessing more common sense than the average Shou, because of their lack of exposure to complicated and unnecessary bureaucracies, organized a strike team to free Ying-Men Xang. As the rest of the empire celebrated the new year, this small force of horsemen broke Ying-Men out of his prison, and smuggled him back to their home on the Red Plains. As soon as they safely returned, they declared Ying-Men the true Emperor of the Shou Empire, with the minister going along with it only after learning of the true consequences that his brother’s madness had on citizens all across the empire who had been massacred. The imperial government in Sheng Long, headed by Emperor Min-Wen did not accept the claims made by the Ma’reni, of course. The Ma’reni refused to acknowledge the validity of Min-Wen’s rule. As a result, a schism erupted that would result in two Emperors of the Shou Empire. Emperor Min-Wen represented the “Imperial Shou Empire”, and the newly installed Emperor Ying-Men represented the “Imperial Shou Empire and Red Plains”. This civil war, succession war, and war of independence, all wrapped into one conflict, continues to be fought to this very day. The first clash between the two sides happened in 637, when the Imperial Army of the Shou Empire met with a group of rag-tag Ma’reni militiamen. Though the Imperial Army of the Shou Empire possessed better weapons, and boasted a much larger fighting force, the speedy guerilla hit-and-run tactics of the Ma’reni horsemen stymied them. As this tactic began being used on food convoys, Emperor Min-Wen and his advisors had the Imperial Army of the Shou Empire recalled. A group of 3,000 soldiers stayed behind, garrisoning the newly erected Fortress of Kai Deng. Years later, the comparably sized Fortress of Dei Kim was erected as well. In the end, after the intense fighting abated, nothing changed, politically. An estimated 10,000 were dead, including those deaths that sparked the initial rioting against Emperor Min-Wen. The Ma’reni did not recognize Emperor Min-Wen Xang as the true Emperor of the Shou Empire, and considered his brother the true emperor. Emperor Min-Wen Xang did not recognize the validity of the claims of the Ma’reni horsemen of the Red Plains, or their semi-autonomy. Emperor Min-Wen Xang died in 650, and his son, Wu Jin-Wen Xang, succeeded him. Though the political tension between the people of the Red Plains and the rest of the Shou Empire cooled considerably with his death, the political situation was not solved. This has resulted in a long-term problem between the two sides that has periodically flared up. Most recently, in 1,094, a group of Ma’reni separatists seized control of the Imperial Opera House in Fing-Wu, hoping to capture Emperor Kang Il-Chien, who was attending a show there. While the emperor escaped, the separatists took hundreds of people hostage for ten days, killing three hundred of them and causing massive damage to the opera house before being routed and killed by elite soldiers summoned to end the standoff. The Shou government responded by limiting Ma’reni trade at the Fortress of Kai Deng, and the Fortress of Dei Kim. The tension between the two is so deeply ingrained in the people of both sides that it might never be fully solved.